Sevas Tra

Sevas Tra is the debut studio album by the nu metal band Otep, released in 2002. The album name, when read backwards, reads as "art saves".[2] It debuted at number 145 on the Billboard 200.[3]

Sevas Tra
Studio album by
Otep
ReleasedJune 18, 2002
Recorded2002
Genre
Length54:05
61:08 (bonus track)
LabelCapitol
ProducerTerry Date
Otep chronology
Jihad
(2001)		 Sevas Tra
(2002)		 House of Secrets
(2004)
Singles from Sevas Tra
  1. "Blood Pigs"
    Released: 2002
  2. "Possession"
    Released: 2002

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[2]

The album received positive reviews. Allmusic gave the album a 4 out of 5 stars rating writing "Sevas Tra is a record that raises the high watermark for goth metal."[2] CMJ gave the album an extremely positive review."[4]

Music and lyrics

The album is a nu metal[5] album that features strong elements of death metal,[4][6] as well as elements of groove metal, funk metal, alternative metal, rap metal, grindcore and hip-hop.[2][6] The album's song "Jonestown Tea" features elements of spoken word.[6] The vocals consist of growling,[2][4] screaming[2][4] and rapping.[7] The growling on the album is one example of the album's elements of grindcore and death metal.[4][6] Also, the album has guitar riffs heard in the death metal genre. The album has been compared to Cannibal Corpse, Metallica, Skinlab and Slipknot.[4][5] Allmusic described the album as "heavier than Slipknot".[2] The album's lyrical topics include organized religion and abuse.[6] The band's vocalist Otep Shamaya said that the album Sevas Tra "is a story about life's struggles and what you do to overcome them, or what you do to be swallowed by them."[8] The album's song "Jonestown Tea" is about child sexual abuse and is also believed to be about Otep Shamaya being sexually abused by her father.[8][9] The song was used by a teenager who, along with her sister, was sexually abused by their father, to inform her mother about her father's sexual abuse.[9] Otep Shamaya spoke about the song "Jonestown Tea" saying

I wanted to do something dramatic for the record. At one of our rehearsals, management was there and some people from a label scouting us, and we just started (to improvise) ... By the end of the song, which was about 13 or 14 minutes later, people's jaws were on the floor. I'd kind of gone off into this other place and didn't really realize what had occurred. Something remarkable had taken place. Once we'd gone through that and everyone was like, 'Where did that come from? I decided that this was something important that I wanted to express and communicate on the record.[9]

Otep Shamaya called organized religion "a lie".[6] Many people have mistaken the song "Menocide" to be against men. Otep Shamaya said that it isn't hateful towards men and that it goes against women abuse, including violence against women.[10]

Track listing

All tracks are written by M. Bistany, J. McGuire, R. Patterson and Otep Shamaya, except where noted.

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Tortured" 1:39
2."Blood Pigs" 4:03
3."T.R.I.C." (reworked from the Jihad version of "T.R.I.C.")Bistany, W. Marsh, McGuire, Patterson, Shamaya3:05
4."My Confession" 5:31
5."Sacrilege" (reworked from the Jihad version of "The Lord Is My Weapon") 4:09
6."Battle Ready" 4:21
7."Emtee" 3:58
8."Possession" (reworked from the Jihad version of "Possession")Bistany, Marsh, McGuire, Patterson, Shamaya4:54
9."Thots" 4:09
10."Fillthee" (reworked from the Jihad version of "Fillthee")D. Aguilera, Bistany, Marsh, McGuire, Patterson, Shamaya3:36
11."Menocide" 4:51
12."Jonestown Tea" 9:47
13."Brother" (Hidden Track) 7:03

Personnel
Main personnel
Additional personnel
  • Producer: Terry Date
  • Engineers: Terry Date, Martin Feveyear
  • Assistant engineers: Dave Fisher, Anthony Kilhoffer, Floyd Reitsman
  • Mixing: Terry Date
  • Mastering: Ted Jensen
  • Digital editing: Martin Feveyear
  • A&R: Ron Laffitte
  • Art direction: P.R. Brown, Wendy Dougan
  • Jacket design: P.R. Brown
  • Booklet design: Wendy Dougan
  • Photography: P.R. Brown

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year Chart Position
2002 UK 86[11]
The Billboard 200 145
gollark: It's verified when you construct a string. Disregarding unsafe hackery or any implementation bugs, a string will always be valid UTF-8.
gollark: In Rust a string is *guaranteed* to be valid UTF-8.
gollark: Well, yes, but they're byte sequences.
gollark: I mean, it's better than C and stuff, and I wouldn't mind writing simple apps in it.
gollark: Speaking specifically about the error handling, it may be "simple", but it's only "simple" in the sense of "the compiler writers do less work". It's very easy to mess it up by forgetting the useless boilerplate line somewhere, or something like that.

References
  1. "Sevas Tra by Otep". AllMusic.
  2. "Sevas Tra - Otep". Allmusic.
  3. "Otep – Chart History: Billboard 200". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved February 7, 2013.
  4. "LOUD ROCK". 71 (766). CMJ New Music Report. June 10, 2002: 19. ISSN 0890-0795. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. "OTEP". CMJ New Music Monthly. No. 102. 2002. p. 19. ISSN 1074-6978.
  6. Kaufman, Gil (August 16, 2002). "Otep Challenges Corey Taylor, Jonathan Davis To Poetry Slam". MTV.
  7. Niccum, Jon (August 16, 2002). "Otep adjusts to being sole female artist on Ozzfest". Lawrence.com.
  8. "Jonestown Tea by Otep". Songfacts.
  9. "Florida Teenager Uses OTEP Song To Inform Mother Of Sexual Abuse At Hands Of Father". Blabbermouth. January 15, 2006.
  10. Harrell, Jeff (April 4, 2013). "From Otep, with rage". Southern Bend Tribune.
  11. Zywietz, Tobias. "Chart Log UK: The O - Ozric Tentacles". zobbel.de. Tobias Zywietz. Retrieved July 7, 2009.
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